Abstract
Kurdistan Region (KR) of Iraq has suffered from the drought period during the seasons 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 that affected the human and economic activities of the region. Macro rainwater harvesting (Macro RWH) is one of the techniques that can ensure water availability for a region having limited water resources. This technique is based on Soil Conservation ServiceCurve Number (SCS-CN) method and the Watershed Modeling System (WMS) was used to estimate the runoff. Rainfall records of Sulaymaniyah area for the period 2002-2012 were studied and an average season was selected (2010-2011). The results of the application of the WMS model showed that about 10.76 million cubic meters could be harvested. The results also showed that the quantity of the harvested runoff was highly affected by rainfall depth, curve number values, antecedent moisture conditions (AMC) and the area of the basins.
Highlights
Iraq is a part of the arid and semi-arid area of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
The results showed that the application of Macro rainwater harvesting (RWH) would provide a new source for water
Till the end of the season, the rainfall subsided with total rainfall depth of 0.2 mm
Summary
Iraq is a part of the arid and semi-arid area of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Iraq is experiencing water shortages despite the presence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers [1,2,3]. During the past few years, north Iraq (especially Kurdistan Region) experienced a period of draught. Water policies of neighboring countries enforced another burden where huge dams were built on the upper parts of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Syria and Turkey. This led to the reduction of the flow rate of both rivers inside of Iraq [1,2,3]
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